Hello and happy Sunday friends. Hope you are having a great weekend. FINALLY spring feels like it’s arrived. Though we had almost no snow it just felt like winter dragged on and on and on. I had no patience for it this year and there are so many things about spring I love from flowers to not having to walk around in layers upon layers and of course lots of black and gray (kind of a NY thing) lol.

So nice to see beautiful spring colors, and yesterday actually opened my windows up as we got near 69 degrees! I was able to go to my other happy place yesterday, the NY flower market, more on that next week. But let me tell you, talk about a place that energizes you………there are no words. I love it and really feed off that energy, plus being there at 7am on a Saturday morning made me feel like a bonafide “industry insider” 🙂

Nothing like NYC in the spring!  In celebration of spring and the upcoming holidays of Easter and Passover, the bunny and egg collection is for the first time, 25% off today and tomorrow. Use code “bunny”.

Hope you are having a great weekend. Here we go with this weeks Seven on Sunday-

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1 ONE FABULOUS LAKE HOUSE Seen in Atlanta Homes Magazine this is the stuff lake home dreams are made of! What a beautifully done lakehouse, the epitome of “vacation home”. The soothing tones and large sun flooded spaces make this a perfect house to escape to. Click here to read more about it over at Atlanta Homes and Garden.

2 A TRIED AND TRUE RECIPE AND ONE I AM TRYING!   I love eggplant and have never met an eggplant dish I didn’t love. A favorite is eggplant parm, but with my new healthier way to eating, it is really not something I tend to make much anymore.

However at my sons request, I did make it recently and instead of frying, I baked it and it honestly came out as good and though not necessarily “healthy” it definitely was less calories so the small portion I indulged in it felt almost guilt free:) It is sooo good, a simple recipe but worth trying! Let me know if you try and tell me what you think. Wanted to share-

For 4 people

• 6-8baby eggplants (much tastier than the big eggplant)
• Panko bread crumbs
• Thinly sliced Provolone cheese (about 1/2 lb) I think this is one of the secrets to this instead of using mozzarella, really makes a huge difference in taste!
• Fresh Parmesan *must be fresh, there is no substitute
• Fresh marinara sauce (this is important, even if you don’t make it, go to a local market that does or even buy a quart from a local Italian restaurant)
• Olive oil
• A very ripe tomato super thinly sliced
• 4-6 whole peeled garlic cloves
• One bunch of fresh basil
• 2 eggs
• Freshly chopped basil about 3 TBSP (fresh basil is best)
• Salt and pepper

Thinly slice your baby eggplant (peel should be off). Dredge in beaten eggs and panko crumbs. Lined a baking sheet with wax paper and bake the eggplant for about 15-20 min a preheated oven set at 350. You can drizzle a little bit of olive oil on the wax paper (you don’t need much)

Meanwhile, lightly saute whole garlic cloves with olive oil in a sautee pan and then add your tomato sauce, gently stirring. Add half the fresh basil (chopped) and season. Once eggplant is done, I take a Pyrex or baking dish and line the eggplant next to each other, normally about 3 layers.

On each layer I generously spoon the tomato sauce over the eggplant, then place the provolone slices and liberally sprinkle the fresh Parmesan. I also add some of the fresh basil on each layer. On the third and final layer, I add my final layer of cheese, sprinkle the Parmesan and then add the thinly sliced tomato and top with more fresh basil.

Cover with aluminum and bake for about 30 min in a 350 oven, remove aluminum and allow to cook for an additional 5 minutes just until it starts to bubble on top. So good!

THIS IS A NEW RECIPE THAT HAS COME ACROSS MY RADAR. Right up my family’s alley. The kind of thing we order often in restaurants but have never made at home! I will be sure to get back to you one way or another on this, hope to make it this week. I need to see if this will sway my oldest to come home, hey- I do what I have to do:)

If its as delicious as it sounds, this is sure to become a regular meal in this household as it’s something I will eat (sans the pasta) but my kids and husband will love it. Click here for the full recipe and  on a side note, this site has a bounty of incredible recipes FYI.

3. A GREAT NEW ESPADRILLE AND A BARGAIN ALERT! Now that spring is officially here I have put away my boots and cold weather footwear and slowly bringing out my favorite warm weather shoes. I am big on espadrilles, they look good with everything and are super comfy.

I wear them to my office just about every day so own several pair. I just got these and adore them and since I bought them at full price,  they are incredibly now 40% off so just ordered a second pair. They are extremely comfortable, reasonable and offered in three great colors. Run don’t walk to steal these at under $48! Click here to get your pair.

4 INSTAGRAMS OF INTEREST Such fun finding the best of the week to share on Sundays. Some weeks it’s hard to really have to winnow these down but I did and here are my faves this week, always love discovering new accounts too! This week is somewhat random, a dose of beauty, good eats, a little humor and a bit of fabulous photography  and art thrown in-

5 INSPIRING STORY OF THE WEEK Our world needs more young entrepreneurs like this. I have always been so fascinated by young inventors who’s minds allow them to think outside the box. But when that thinking has the potential to change the life of someone who is blind, it makes what this 13 year old kid doing simply extraordinary! I have a feeling we will be seeing and hearing more about Shubram and it’s almost hard to imagine he is only 13!

6. FUN EDESIGN PROJECTS. I have a number of fun edesign projects happening right now. The beauty of edesign is the continuous communication aka instant gratification. They almost always involve a few mood boards which helps both myself and the client in making decisions and seeing how all the elements come together. A few times a year,  I share with you the finished product (with client’s permission)  and I hope to do a post on edesign in a few months to show you how these all came out. Here is what is happening now-

This is for a beautiful family home where we are stating with the foyer, and moving into living/dining room. This is a foyer concept so far….gotta love those navy’s!

And this design is shaping up to be one gorgeous bedroom for someone on the other side of the coast, Oregon. I cannot wait to see the finished product, this job required some demolition so it’s taken a while but there is now light at the end of this tunnel and this is really coming out beautifully…cannot wait to share the finished product:)

This is for a therapist who moved into a new small office space and needed to keep everything under $2,000 and do it really fast. We did the entire space under budget but the overall look says otherwise, love the overall vibe.

And here I am working with someone who is in a short term rental and wants to dress up their master bedroom but on a budget so we are choosing lamps, bedding and accessories-

7. SUNDAY’S SURVEY So there are two super quick mini polls, almost no thinking required this week:) Always love and cherish “your voice” so thank you in advance for partaking-

The second survey is about going back to carrying a few select bath and body lines. I used to carry a few beautiful lines of products like Antica Farmacista’s incredible line of bath and body products, lotions, candles, diffusers,etc……considering carrying them again and wondering what you think?

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And that’s a wrap for this weekend. Hope you enjoyed this post. Anything get your attention here? Would love to hear about it, always love hearing from you and sharing my Sunday mornings together, it’s like one big virtual coffee group:) Wishing everyone a great close to your weekend. Until next time……..

PS A NEW CONTEST IS BEING ANNOUNCED TODAY!!! A FIRST- OUR NEW TABLESCAPE LOVE CONTEST!

Accepting your entries as of today, April 7th. Please read rules below-

Love seeing Teddy in a sea of orchids:)